


satellites: the divide

by hyperloop



Series: satellites [6]
Category: Original Work, Satellites - Fandom
Genre: Other, i don't really have anything funny to say right now but i hope you enjoy if you decide to read, so this is where we get into the more actiony part of the story, some slight robot feelios
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-07 11:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12839883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyperloop/pseuds/hyperloop
Summary: your friendly neighborhood robot crash lands yet again with some news, but this time creates quite a commotion by causing human interaction, oh no. what will happen when renegade encounters these humans that aren't salem?





	satellites: the divide

**Author's Note:**

> i did feel like the quotes were becoming exceedingly difficult to come up with without sounding really pretentious so i'm kinda ditching themeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
> 
> sorry that was me scraping some alfredo sauce off of my e key lol carry on

_Satellites: The Divide_

 

_"????????????"_

 

_. . ._

 

“Netbook, check. Project, check. Phone, check.” A pleasant female voice came over the intercom. “The Tech Resource Center will be closing in 30 minutes. Please properly log off of all used devices before you leave, and have a great rest of your day. Thank you.” “Oh nice, just in time.” Salem said, satisfied, stuffing some work materials in his bag and signing himself out of the resource log. A nice productive way to wrap up an otherwise listless Sunday.

 

Salem set foot outside of the resource center and walked closer to home. As soon as he walked outside, the cool, refreshing afternoon breeze swept past his exposed skin and t-shirt. He smiled to himself, which felt pretty good. Sunday evenings have always been what he considered the bane of his existence, he thought as he continued his stroll on the sidewalk. It didn’t matter what he spent the last few days doing, it never mattered, at this time it always felt like it wasn’t enough. He always felt as if there’s SOMETHING better he could be doing, sometimes he just sits there doing nothing to spite it, allowing it to eat away at him.

 

He walked into the neighborhood. Almost home. The neighbor’s dog barked at him. He waved in return at it, and then thought that was silly because dogs have no real meaningful interpretation of our human gestures. As he got closer to home, he knew the sun would be setting soon. He’d get ready for tomorrow in the same way he always did. Expecting nothing less, but nothing more. Just mentally preparing himself for yet another average day in his life. He brushed his fingers through his hair that was now mostly brown and then bleached blond at the tips, maybe someday soon he’d get his hair done again. He walked up the driveway, and noticed another car was there. A car that wasn’t his dad’s, most likely Gale’s, or an impostor.

 

He opened the unlocked door, not quite knowing what to expect. “SALEM!!!” A deepish voice shouted from the dining room. “Hi!!” It was, in fact, Gale, who was sitting in the dining room, eating a salad that he assumed their dad had prepared for her. “Hey, what’s up?” He smiled at her, walked in and dropped his bag on the floor next to the table. He sat down at the booth next to it. “Not much, I stopped by to pick up some feeds for Petri. Remember my parakeet?” Gale said enthusiastically. “Oh yes, how is he?” Salem asked. “Gale, show him those pictures you took of Petri. And Salem, help yourself to some salad, I just whipped it up for you two.” Salads weren’t necessarily Salem’s can of worms, but he did enjoy picking out some croutons, if anything.

 

Salem got a cup for his croutons, reached for the salad bowl and upon further inspection noticed that there were no croutons. “No croutons? You call this a salad? Jerk.” Salem thought, but didn’t say because there’s no way that would go well for him. He walked to the refrigerator, opened it, and peered in, but the only thing there for him was the chilled air grazing over his skin. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted some animal crackers on top of the fridge. He was barely tall enough to reach them, but he did so by standing on his toes. He opened a pouch of animal crackers and sat back down at the booth. As he sat down, he heard a noise from outside that was closest in resemblance to thunder or something else natural. “Did you guys hear that?” He asked, looking out the window directly ahead of him. Gale looked at him. “Hear what?” “Eh, guess not. I thought I heard something rumbling outside…” It didn’t show any indication of storm outside. Odd. “I don’t know, maybe it’s construction or something.” Gale’s eyes drifted down at her phone. Salem continued to eat his animal crackers.

 

“Ahh, look at him, look at this!!” Gale exclaimed, looking at her phone. She showed Salem. It was a picture of Petri. It was funny, he’d never thought that a bird could smile until today. “Aww, he’s so cute.” “I know, right? There’s a video of him eating in here somewhere, too.” Salem munched more on his animal crackers while Gale muttered to herself. “I should really make, like, an album of Petri pics…”

 

Something moving outside past the window straight ahead caught Salem’s peripheral vision. He glanced over out the window, and saw something rustling in the bushes snug to the house. He didn’t make anything of it, figuring it might as well just be a squirrel. The second he looked away, it came back. The feeling that he’s being watched. With someone’s eyes, something’s eyes, something’s large, artificially magenta eyes. Gale had begun talking at some point but he was in a state of confusion that made it difficult to pay her any mind. He peered out the window again, and saw the top of a head with reflective silver hair gleaming in the setting sun. Soon, the purple eyes came up out of the bushy area. “Oh shit, is this really happening?” He thought more to himself.

 

Salem blinked harshly and rubbed his closed eyes with his hand to dispel the possibility of any silly optical illusions that might be affecting him. He brought his glasses close to his eyes and focused outside again. There was Renegade, peeping in the window. “And that’s how Petri learned his first word, ‘lemons’. Anyway, here’s the video I was talking about.” Gale played the video. Salem, in shock, stopped chewing and dropped the carbohydrate donkey back in the bag. He glanced at the phone screen for a few seconds before doing a double take in the direction of the window. “What’s outside?” Gale questioned, beginning to turn her head. Salem swallowed hard. “Nothing! Oh my god, is that a banana? I didn’t know para… Uhh, birds ate bananas.” Gale snapped back to him. “Hah! Me neither, you learn something every day, I guess.” Salem started to sweat. His eyes twitched from the screen of Gale’s phone to the window rapidly. Renegade waved its hands conspicuously above its head. Salem gritted his teeth, making brief but direct eye contact, and rocked his head back and forth. Renegade shot him back a puzzled expression. Salem sweat some more and felt anxiety swell in his throat, all the while he realized Gale was talking to him again. “...And that’s why I feed Petri banana, but only on Tuesdays. Dude, what are you looking at?” Gale shot a look to the corner to her eye and began to turn. “I thought I saw a squirrel. Nothing unusual. I heard birds can be really annoying when you’re trying to sleep.” “Mhm. I have a recording of him squawking his cute feathery ass off at something like 5 AM the other day.” Gale spoke, with a mildly irritated intonation, looking through her phone nonetheless.

 

Salem swallowed again, looking outside at Renegade who was standing right there making a complete fool of itself. It inched a step closer to the window and held a gray mechanical arm up the window. As slowly as he could without getting Gale’s unwanted attention, he slid his right hand horizontally across his neck and opened his eyes wider. Renegade appeared even more confused. And with that, Salem came to the realization that he had to do something. It raised one finger and, as lightly as huma-- er, robotically possible, tapped on the glass.

 

Gale’s attention broke and she went to turn around promptly. “Mmmmmuuuuwwwwahhhhh!!!!!” Salem yelled, flailing his limbs and tilting himself off of the stool he was sitting at. He proceeded to faceplant on the floor. Gale stood up and looked at him. “What the fuck? Are you okay??” Salem dragging his aching body off of the ground and wiped some sweat off of his forehead. “Oof, I’m sorry Gale, I don’t feel so good, I’m kinda dizzy. If you’ll… excuse me, I think I’ll step outside for a minute.” “Be my guest. Let me know if you need anything, I guess?”

 

Salem jogged out the door and ran to his backyard as soon as he got out. When he rounded the corner of his house, he got on his hands and knees and crawled behind the bushes because he figured Gale was still near the window. He crawled a little more and there he saw the innocuous robot, sitting in the dirt. “Ren!!” He whisper shouted. “What are you doing? My sister can see you from inside, you know?!” “Oh. I am sorry. Is now not a good time?”

 

Renegade sounded so genuinely disappointed that Salem actually felt kinda bad. “Well, I mean, not the BEST choice, it’s okay though. What’s up?” “I just wanted to say hello. I can’t stay for long.” “You always say that.” “I suppose. But I mean it. I wanted to tell you something.” “What’s that?” “Can I stop by tomorrow?” Renegade? Asking before it comes by to see him? That’s a first. He always wanted to make himself available to see Renegade, but, all things considered, he did have school tomorrow. “Did you have a… mmmm, time in mind?” “Time?” Renegade seemed confused yet again. “How about you just come later in the day? I have school early tomorrow.” “School. I know what that is. I’ll avoid coming then, in that case.” “Mhm.” The two sat there under the bush together for as long as they could before it became awkward. “Salem, you should follow me.” Renegade said.

 

The boy looked back and forth as if to show he was contemplating doing so in his given surroundings. If he was quick, maybe Gale and his dad wouldn’t notice. Worth a shot, right? “Yea, sure.” Renegade and Salem crawled away from the bushes. The robot took the lead and headed towards the field behind the house. Earlier Salem had seen that it was wearing the new hoodie and sweatpants he gave it. “I see you’re wearing the new hoodie and sweatpants I gave you. Do you like them?” “Yes. I feel safer.” It responded, without ceasing its steps forward.

 

As the sun began to fall lower in the sky, the temperature dropped. Salem felt the incoming night touch his arms. In his younger years, Salem would watch the sunset. Outside in the field with his dad and Gale, or, as he got older and he was allowed to move his designated living space to the upper level, on the roof by himself. To him, it was nothing out of the ordinary anymore. But to an outsider, it was nothing to be taken for granted.

 

Renegade stopped walking abruptly in the wide open part of the field. It turned to look at Salem’s house, and then forward, up at the sky. Renegade’s fixed gaze at the sky was almost mesmerizing from Salem, who watched it. “Mmm, what’s that, Salem?” Renegade said, in almost a kind of stutter, which was unusual for it. “What’s what?” Salem responded, forgetting what Renegade had inquired about in the first place. “That…” Renegade gestured its arms to the sky and pointed up. “The sky?” “The pretty colors. What is it?” “That’s a sunset,” Salem said, wincing his eyes at it. “It happens near the end of the day. Because the sun gets low in the sky, and, well, the light scatters. I’m not sure why or what it’s made of, to be honest. My dad used to tell me it was the sun saying ‘see you tomorrow’ so it could greet me again the next morning.” “Oh. It’s lovely.” Renegade awed at it, the sun gradually fading out behind the horizon, the clouds saturated in orange, yellow and pink, the air feeling warm as the remaining light beamed on them. The spectacle slowly fell lower until it was completely obstructed by the distant city and the darkness snuck up on them and it was just Salem, Renegade, and the stars and planes glowing in the sky. After a moment, Renegade turned to look back at Salem. “It’s time for me to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.” It gave Salem a small smile and kneeled to the ground in preparation to launch itself home.

 

Its body produced harsh mechanical noise and began to shine a purple hue. And with that, Renegade shot itself into the night sky like a rocket. “See you tomorrow, Ren.” He looked up until it vanished from sight. Salem looked around the dark lonely field and headed back home, getting quick chills as the crisp seasonal air of night set in.

 

When he arrived at his house, he walked around to the front door where he had originally left. He noticed that Gale’s car was no longer in their driveway. When he got in, his dad was in the living room on his laptop. “Hey!” He greeted. “Hi. Is Gale gone?” “Yes, she left a few minutes ago, she said you weren’t feeling well. Are you okay?” “Yes, I just needed some fresh air, y’know? I feel bad because I didn’t get to say goodbye. I guess I’ll message her later.” “Sounds good. School tomorrow though, I think you should maybe get some rest.” “Me too.” Salem went into the kitchen to grab a juice pouch and headed up to his room. He brushed his teeth and collapsed into bed, where he felt sudden exhaustion like he never wanted to move again.

 

Most nights, he considered before bedtime his “social hour” to finish up all the conversation the day held, be it text or real live conversation. But some nights, he just didn’t have the energy. Or motivation. Or something. He didn’t have enough to talk to anyone but himself, and that was alright. He removed his glasses and plugged his phone into the charger, putting them both on the nightstand. He closed his eyes and laid restfully in bed, ready to take on whatever the next day had for him. Whatever that may be.

 

_. . ._

 

Staying awake at this hour he almost always found difficult. It’s the last period of the school day and he found his eyes closing without even thinking about it. Sometimes he felt like observing others in the same situation that he was in could wake him up a little more. He slid his hands down his cheeks and shifted around a bit, relearning his surroundings. The teacher was giving instructions on god knows what at this point, to the right of him were a group of girls, a few of which furiously taking notes, the rest of which softly talking amongst each other. To the left of him were some boys, mostly on their phones and giggling at whatever boys giggle at on their phones that Salem probably didn't care about. Behind him were the kids doing whatever you do behind the classroom human shield. Pick acne on your forehead, text people, prepare to cheat on the upcoming test. From time to time the teacher would berate one or a group of them for disrespecting her with their inattentiveness.

 

Salem rubbed his droopy eyelids and then promptly put his hands to the keyboard in front of him to resume the usual work he was pretending to do as he sadly excused himself to zone out some more. He briefly considered actually typing something down (for about 7 seconds) until he became overwhelmed with the task. Nonetheless, he continued to type down some words with ardent protest. The confused boy wrote down the first sentence on his document, and just like that, the computer screen blacked and all of the lights in the room went off. Fulmination erupted throughout the room as the students panicked over the potential loss of their classwork. Salem stared at the screen where he had written his one sentence in considerable ambivalence. Shortly thereafter, chaos ensued within the classroom, from students enraged with their loss of work, to students speculating about the possible cause of the outage and what will result. At one particularly rowdy kid’s mention of an “early dismissal” (despite it already being the last period), a riot began. Screaming was heard in other classrooms in unison. This was not good. And Salem sat there in the midst of it all, waiting for the correct line of action.

 

A voice came on the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing a TEMPORARY, I repeat, TEMPORARY outage due to a disruption in the power lines. I ask you all to please remain calm as we work with a fix. Thank you very much.” Disruption in the power lines? Minds immediately wandered, and many people glanced outside for an indicator of the situation. The weather was perfectly calm, so it was unlikely to be a natural cause. One student migrated in from another classroom, because, you know, the power’s out, fuck the rules. He sat with his friends, just in earshot of Salem. He eavesdropped. They’re high school boys, they talk loudly, he didn’t have much of a choice. “Blah blah blah… Disruption in the power lines… blah blah blah…” “Blah blah blah… Hit the power line by the side of the road… blah blah blah…” “Blah blah blah… Crash landed from the sky… blah blah blah…” Salem’s eyes widened and his mouth fell slightly agape. Crash landed from the sky? He flashed back to Renegade telling him it would visit today after school. Fuck. This could only mean one thing. Salem didn’t need to think about this. In a moment of adrenaline and impulsivity, he shoved his things in his bag and ran out of the classroom. “Salem! Where are you going?” The teacher called as he charged out of the room and down the hall. Some students looked after him but no one cared to stop him. He ran to the nearest exit and threw himself out the door.

He took a deep breath and ran, following only his gut instinct, which was telling him to get as far away from the school as possible at the moment before someone caught up to him and he got in massive trouble. The air was vaguely smoky, he could smell, also taste it a little. He ran to the front of the school and leered across the street and sure enough, there was a downed power line with some various service trucks and neighbors crowded around it. “No… It can’t…” He stuttered. No cars on the road at the moment, he crossed the street, legs flying for speed, and jumped onto the curb. “Excuse me, pardon me, I’m sorry, I need to get through.” He gasped out, pushing apart the crowd.

 

The crowd whispered confused words. “It’s a boy!” He heard. “...Just fell out of the sky!” He heard. When he got to the small crater in the ground, he saw a curled over human shape covered in dirty ragged black sweatpants and a hoodie laying there. “Ren!!!” He yelled, pushing to the front lines. He heard people talking about him. People talking on their phones, relaying information to some reporters. A man who looked like an authority figure with a white and blue uniform and a badge stepped up to Salem. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to step back.” Salem panicked. He just wanted to get to Renegade to see if it was alive. “With all due respect sir, I know this, uh, thing.” Salem pointed aggressively at the body. “Well we’re going to have to ask you to step back until we know this ‘thing’ as well.” “No, you don’t understand.” The man reached out to grab Salem’s shoulder but he dodged it and stumbled into the crater with Renegade. “Hey!!! Sir, if I have to ask again, it’s consequences.” Salem ignored the man and got on his knees in the mounted dirt and rested his hand on Renegade’s arm. It didn’t move. The crowd was noisy and addressed him however that they thought they would get his attention, but Salem tunnel-visioned his focus to Renegade. “Rennnnnn…” He cooed gently, leaning down to pull the hood out of its face.

 

Its silver hair was laden with dirt and tousled, revealing the ovoid blemish on its forehead that was so often covered. Its hands were flat on its face like a crying child trying to hide their tears. Salem cautiously grabbed its hands and moved them away from its face and saw two large black ovals where its eyes go. Salem felt his chest thump. He didn’t know what happened to Renegade. “Ren… Please…” He put his head close to the robot’s and stroked its hair with one hand, firmly holding its shoulder with the other. He saw a flicker in the black orbs and felt his heart spark. The eyes pixeled into the purple eyes he always knew. Its mouth opened and it lifted its head off of the ground. “Salem! I’m here! What did I miss?” It said, feigning enthusiasm over what seemed to be pain.

 

Salem smiled brightly at Renegade, hesitating on his answer. “Ren, I…” Salem, losing his adrenaline, started to zone back into place. He heard a siren and people shouting. One voice in particular finally snapped him into it again.

 

“DUMBASS!!” Salem looked up, still on his hands and knees in the dirt. There was a boy with long brown hair and headphones around his neck. It was Peter. “What are you doing in the dirt, you moron?” Salem didn’t answer. The sirens of emergency vehicles howled. Men in uniform and school staff stood around the pit. Also Peter, who must’ve wormed in at some point. A man with handcuffs in his hands and weapons in his belt approached Salem and Renegade. Salem got up, dirty from the ground and exhausted from fading adrenaline, and stood up, putting his hands up to show that he meant no harm. “Sir, what is your name?!” Someone shouted at him. “Salem Daltroy.” He shouted in response. “Mr. Daltroy, step away from the body.”

 

Salem laughed uncomfortably. “There’s a misunderstanding. I know this… Hhhhhhh… Person, and I know him very well actually. He’s not hurt.” “Can you identify this person?” Salem froze. Crap, he had no clue how to respond to that. “Maybe he’d rather identify himself.” Salem said, kicking into autopilot. “I’m going to have to ask you to cool the sass and step away from the body.” The man said, speaking sternly and with authority. Salem started to sweat, not letting his arms out of the air. He nudged Renegade’s bleak body with his foot and continued smiling uncomfortably. “I actually got my sassing license renewed last week, I think I’m free to go.” He giggled nervously. “I’m afraid your ‘resisting police command no matter how funny you think you are’ license has been officially revoked.” The man started to detach something from his weaponized belt and Salem shuddered in fear. Just as he was coming up with a cunning manipulation of words to offer to the man, Peter intervened, jumping in front of the man and grabbing his shoulder.

 

“Sir! Woah! I know this boy has acted like an imbecile on many occasions today, but I don’t really think that’s grounds to kill him!” “Young man, I do not intend to kill this boy, but I do intend to arrest him and anyone else who inhibits us from assisting th--” “Then what do you call THIS?!?” Peter pointed to the lump in the man’s belt. “This is my dart. If we shoot you with this, you’ll be knocked out in ten.” “Ten what? Days? Seconds? Milliseconds? Whatever’s smaller than that?” Salem caught on to the fact that Peter was doing him a massive favor by stalling his arrest. He kicked over Renegade’s body with his foot. “Psssst! Ren! Move!! Please, I need help.” He mumbled. When it heard those words, the robot’s eyes shined bright. “Look at me, Ren. On the count of three, we run. One…” He looked back and forth. “...Two…” He shuffled in place to make sure his legs hadn’t fallen asleep. “...Three… Go!” He shouted, and leaped out of the pit, taking a direct path out of the crowd, shoving his way through.

 

He pulled some of his hair out of his face and looked behind him to see Renegade running with him and smiled at it. The two ran without any prior planning as to where they would go. Renegade quickly caught up to him and they ran side by side down the road. Salem took the lead and ran into a neighborhood, turning a corner away from the clamoring crowd. He drew a map of the area in his head, calculating as precisely as he could where to go, energy coursing through him, motivated by fear of what would happen if it did not. Thoughts rushing like never before, he ran until he noticed he was approaching a cul-de-sac at the end of the road. A dead end. It took him a fraction of a second to make a swift turn and jump over the fence into someone’s empty yard, with a wooded area in the back. Renegade gracefully leaped with him and they ran into the woods. The two dodged trees and stumbled on rocks and other natural textures, scratching up clothing and twisting ankles. Salem got to a place where there were less trees and a smallish river flowed and stopped in his tracks. Renegade stumbled into him. The second the boy stopped moving, he felt a stabbing pain in his left thigh and became suddenly dizzy. He wanted to communicate this with Renegade, but he was so out of breath that he couldn’t say a single word. He trudged, trying to keep his legs up under him, through the shallow river, soaking his shoes. There was a rock formation, a type of overhang right there. He put his back against the large rock and slid down, sweating and breathing so heavily he felt the pressure and ache in his chest. Renegade jumped over the river and sat down next to him, seemingly unaffected. Salem laid his head against the rock, giving up on running anymore. “Ren… Fuck… Hnnnnn… My leg…” He mustered the energy to look down at the source of his pain and saw a dart with a thin needle stuck through his jeans in the side of his upper thigh. “Oh no. This isn’t good, Ren.” He said woefully as he grabbed the dart and yanked it out of his leg.

 

He dropped the dart on the ground and sighed breathily. “What happened?” Renegade sounded concerned. “I’m gonna be asleep soon, buddy. They shot me with the dart. It makes you lose consciousness. Soon I won’t be able to do much of anything. I had so much adrenaline as I was running away, I didn’t even feel it.” “Will you be okay?” Salem didn’t answer. Instead he kept breathing. He listened to the river gurgle and splosh. He listened to the leaves rattling in the trees above as a slight breeze came through. He was starting to become out of touch with some bodily sensations, and some sounds and thoughts just meshed with one another. He heard sirens in the distance, it sounded like they were getting closer, but it could be just his perception. “I think so.” Renegade looked at Salem as he laid his head back and closed his eyes. “Can I do anything for you?” Salem spoke groggily and slowly as he was still catching breath. “Ren, don’t let them hurt you. Don’t let them get to you. Being exploited is not an option. I want you to protect yourself, leave me if you need to. I think I’ll make it. But I want you to do better. Capiche?” The robot nodded and gently grabbed Salem’s hand. The sound of sirens grew louder and they heard rustling in the woods as Salem became very, very sleepy. “We’ll make it out, Ren.” Salem said, as his head fell to rest on his shoulder. Completely unable to react, he felt a few last sensations. Unintelligible voices, light shining through his eyelids, and two heavy cold arms around his body, scraping him off of the damp ground. Three men in uniform suits approached Renegade who was holding Salem, its back facing them. It was too late to run.

 

“Young man, we don’t want to harm you. Come with us and you will not face any further consequences.” Renegade turned to face them, cradling Salem’s unconscious body. The men looked in mild confusion but showed no weakness when they saw Renegade’s face and body. “We will not hurt you. Please step forward.” They repeated.  Renegade looked down, dirty silver hair falling in its face, and slowly walked forward, stepping on rocks to avoid stepping in the river. It walked with them back out of the woods. They got to a truck pulled up to the curb. Residents of the neighborhood gathered to watch, as if it was any of their business. “Young man, please hand this boy over to us. You will be in good hands.” Renegade didn’t move or speak. It, instead, sat in the back of the truck with Salem still in its arms. “Give us the boy.” One of them asserted again. Renegade sat there, avoiding eye contact with the men. They whispered amongst each other, speaking words in code into their phones. Without warning, one of the men grabbed Renegade, pulled a large mask with no holes for eyes over its head, and pushed its back in until it let go of Salem, his body dropping limply into the arms of another correspondent. The residents gasped in shock. The two were put in a restraining jacket holding their arms by their sides, Renegade still made no physical or verbal protest. They were loaded into the rear of the vehicle and locked up in complete perceptual darkness where they heard more sirens and felt movement, but everything aside from that was faded out as they began to move somewhere that neither of them cared to know.

 

_. . ._

 

The sound of nervous laughter and mumbling filled his senses. Salem opened his eyes very steadily and winced in discomfort. The room he was in was bright but quite dull in appearance. He heard familiar voices talking in hushed tones but he couldn’t put their words together. When his eyes opened all the way, he wiggled around but found he was restrained. “Hey! Salem! I think he’s awake.” He heard one of the voices. “Uuuunnnnghhhhhh…” He moaned. “Am I dead again?” He heard a soft giggle. He looked forward after his vision returned fully and his attention was immediately drawn to his sister looking right at him. He inspected further and saw his mom and dad sitting in front of him, a large metal desk separating them. He turned his head back and forth rapidly, put his hand to his face an adjusted his crooked glasses. “He’s up now. Will you let him go already?” His dad said in either agitation, concern, or both. A man walked behind Salem and unlatched something. He felt the restraints come loose and wriggled himself free of the body wrap on a chair that was hard enough to make his ass bones hurt. “Alrighty, glad that’s over with. Now tell me, what the hell is going on?” Salem fiercely inquired. He’s only rarely seen his entire family together in one room, and figured if anything, this means that he fucked up big time.

 

“You may be a little confused, and that’s okay. You and your friend fled from an investigation. At the time, you were considered a pretty serious threat.” “My friend? You mean--” He paused and gasped. “Ren! What did you do with my friend?” “He’s right over there.” The man pointed to a thick glass window to the left of Salem that he somehow didn’t notice. There was an identical room with lower lighting and a human figure in bodily restraints and the black cover masking its head. He knew it was Renegade instantly from the tall gangly figure. “Is it okay? Let me in there now. I need to talk to it.” The man rattled off some more incoherent but confused words into his communication device and soon there was another man who looked almost like a carbon copy of the first showed up. “We will let you in to speak with him. Daltroy family, a moment please. Your patience is appreciated.” One walked in front and the other behind Salem, bringing him into the next room.

 

The lighting was raised as they walked in. Renegade was as still as a statue. One of the men got close to it and removed the cover on its head. As soon as the artificial light hit Renegade’s face, it came to life, eyes glowing as usual. It shuffled around a little and looked back and forth. “Ren.” Salem said as he walked toward it, the escorts staying in the room but standing behind him. “It’s me.”

 

Renegade looked up at Salem but didn’t say anything. It was sitting, still wrapped in a restraining coat, in a chair in front of a metal desk the same way Salem woke up. “Reeennnnnn…” He cooed, lowering himself a little to reach and touch Renegade’s shoulder. Renegade looked him directly in the eye but didn’t speak still. Salem quickly became distressed and felt short of breath again. His smile faded into worry. “What’s wrong? You can talk to me. You can always talk to me.” He whispered, getting closer to Renegade’s face. The day’s worth of anxiety and depression started to well up in his throat. He strained to keep his chin up. “Mr. Daltroy. We have limited time here.” He heard one of the men in the corner assert. “Let me bring my friend in with my family.” He asserted right back. The men looked at each other and shrugged. “Alright.” Salem stood up and one of them went to Renegade, holding it by its sides to help it stand up. Renegade stood up with relative ease and walked with Salem back into the other room, chin down, looking at its feet. “Have a seat,” One of the men brought over the same uncomfortably hard chair for Renegade to sit in. Renegade sat down and Salem’s family stared at it.

 

All regard for social conformity and politeness out the window at this point, they continued to gawk at the robot. It didn’t react. Eventually Gale got tired of the silence and took matters into her own hands. “Who is this?” She asked. “This is my friend. Its name is Ren. It’s a robot.” “You’ve got to be joking.” One of the guards said to the other. “Well, as far as we can tell, Salem is telling the truth. We have no indicator that this being is really… human. It hasn’t spoken, we tried to take some fluid samples and failed because it appears to lack human body mechanisms.” The other guard walked circles around Renegade, looking at it closely. “Shouldn’t that have been obvious? Half of its body is made of metal, sir. It has glowing purple eyes.” “Shut your mouth, Chad. This is a serious investigation.” “We have to do something with this. Should we report it to the higher authorities for testing?” The guard retorted “No.” They both looked at Salem.

 

“Look, this robot isn’t from around here. It isn’t one of us. But it has a name, and a face, and life. It has changed me. It feels, it learns, it loves. We don’t know what kind of catastrophic, intergalactic debacle we’re asking for if we let this break to national news. We could be putting it in serious danger, ever think of that? And you want to alert the higher authorities? Over my dead body, pal!” The boy shouted. “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let you guys expose my friend like it’s a criminal just because it’s something you’ve never seen before.” Everyone in the room was silent. Within a few seconds, Salem felt uncomfortable in the environment that he created. The guards looked at each other. They said nothing. His family said nothing.

 

“It makes you sad, doesn’t it?” A voice spoke. Everyone in the room glared at Renegade with varying intensities. “...That there’s so much cynicism in the universe.” Salem’s mouth couldn’t resist a grin. “I hope you don’t mind my criticism. Frankly, I’m a just a little bit skeptical of it all.”

 

Its voice was as serene and droning as ever. One could only consider it “scary” if they’ve never heard it before. Many mouths fell agape that night. “It’s okay, I promise I won’t hurt you. You can talk to me. I understand.” Salem, overwhelmed with emotion walked over to Renegade and wrapped his arms around it. Renegade smiled when it felt the kind touch. “I suppose he’s right.” One of the men finally spoke. “We don’t HAVE to tell anyone.” “And just what do you all propose we do, in that case?” The other one said.

 

Salem let go of Renegade and walked up to them. “Please, let it stay with me. At home. My only wish right now is to just go home and sleep, but I want to know my friend has a place that’s safe for it. I don’t trust it with anyone, anywhere else. Please.” The guards glanced at one another again. “Yeah, I guess we can let you guys off the hook. This is a situation unlike any other, do you understand me?” He cocked his head and glared at Salem. “Yes.” Salem said, promisingly. “Daltroys, you’re free to go. But please, for your own sakes, be very very careful.” Salem nodded. He loosened Renegade’s body coat, setting it free. Some of the officials in the establishment talked to each other to confirm that they were free to go home. They grabbed their stuff and walked outside. It was finally dark, maybe chilly. All of them had lost track of time. Their mom and dad walked ahead, and stopped in the parking lot to whisper to each other. It was awkward, the whole scene was on multiple levels, really.

 

Gale stopped Renegade and Salem to talk before she got in her car to drive home. “Hey guys, I’m gonna be honest, I have no clue what just happened. But it’s nice to meet you. Do you have a name?” Gale gestured at Renegade. “You can call me… Uhh… Ren. It’s nice to meet you too, Gale.” “Oh, hello Ren. Just to reiterate, I have no clue what’s going on, but I have a weird feeling about it. I want you guys to be extremely cautious! Don’t do anything you’re not comfortable with. Don’t let anyone violate you. Stay strong. I gotta go, I didn’t have time to feed Petri before I got called here. I love you guys. Cool?” Salem didn’t quite know what to say, so he just nodded in appreciation. “Cool.” Gale flashed them a satisfied smile and jogged off to her car. They looked behind to find Salem’s dad, who was no longer talking to Mrs. Daltroy. She probably drove off quickly after criticizing Mr. Daltroy on something trivial. He was leaning against the outside of his car, kicking pebbles on the pavement without a care in the world. He noticed Salem and Renegade coming to him. “You ready to go home?” He asked.

 

“Never been readier.” Salem answered with exhaustion in his voice. Somewhere within himself, Salem would very much enjoy a long walk back home with Renegade. But his body ached and burned when he moved for reasons he didn’t exactly remember. That, and he didn’t trust anyone to not mess with Renegade because it frankly looked kinda susceptible to questioning. They both crawled into the backseat of Salem’s dad’s car, Salem dozing off as if the drive home was a precursor to a good night’s sleep. The car drove into the bumpy driveway and Salem grunted, stepping out of the vehicle. Renegade got out of the same side. Salem was overcome with relief as he entered his home once again, safely, with Renegade. Mr. Daltroy looked at Salem to address him before he and his companion headed upstairs. “No school tomorrow, but don’t let that stop you from getting a good rest. Goodnight.” “Goodnight. Thanks, dad.” Salem said, wearily, as he headed upstairs. He was somewhat perplexed knowing that his dad didn’t question, or speak at all, really, to Renegade. He was too tired to think hard on it.

 

Renegade followed Salem to his room where Salem shut the door behind them, and then  walked directly to his bed and flopped face first on it. He groaned some nonsense into it. Renegade tilted its head, looking at the sleepy boy. Salem got up and rolled around in bed, and patted the spot next to him that was closest to the door. “Sit, Ren.” Enervation weighed down his voice. Renegade walked up to him and sat on the bed. Salem took off his glasses, put them on the nightstand, and hugged his body pillow. Renegade sat up, his back parallel to the headboard. Salem closed his eyes. Renegade let its eyes wander. It looked around the room. There were clothes on the floor in the space between the bed and the closet. There were nightstands to the left and right of the bed, the one on Salem’s side containing a digital clock, the lamp, his glasses, and his phone charger. There were various toys and objects that were probably significant to Salem in some way on the nightstand on Renegade’s side. In the center of the ceiling, there was the window that through which one could observe the minutiae of life. The stars or clouds in the sky, birds, airplanes. Salem rolled onto his back and sighed, putting his hands behind his head. He looked through the ceiling window, just like Renegade.

 

“Salem, I have a question.” It said. “Shoot.” He responded.

 

“Do humans fear death?”

 

Salem took a second to think about it. “Well, I’m sure some do. Moreso than others. I think about it sometimes, yeah, but it’s never been like something that keeps me up at night.”

 

“There’s so many things that could go wrong. What if that beautiful sunset we saw last night was the last one you ever saw? Or the image in your head of me, shooting up into the sky, flying away after that? That could be the last thing you’d get to witness before it all ends. The universe offers no free consolation.”

 

“If that sunset and that departure was the last thing I ever saw before it was all over, well, that would just be okay with me.” Salem was too tired to feel any emotional sensation that would otherwise be pulling him away from a restful sleep at this point. Yet, he continued to ask.

 

“What about you? Do robots fear death?”

 

“We all fear what we don’t know, my love.” Renegade spoke as if it was hurt but still held its chin up. “We feel threatened by the things that we don’t understand. I think that applies to everything.” “Do you think you’ll ever die?” His voice cracked sleepily. “I don’t know. It frightens me. I don’t think it’s supposed to. What about you?”

 

“Well, Ren, I’m just a human. Of course I’m gonna die. It’s just one of those things.” “But what if I could help you stop it from happening?” Salem laid there in bed, with his eyes closed. “If you really wanted to do that with me, I’d be willing to let you try.”

 

Renegade grinned. “Thank you, Salem. Never dream of dying.”  _ Never dream of dying.  _ Salem rolled over again to hug his body pillow, and within minutes, he was asleep. Renegade gazed at the sleeping boy and thought about what he had said. It sat in his bed but in its own company. If he was going to let it try, Renegade was going to make it work. 

**Author's Note:**

> yo i APPRECIATE you big time dawg. seriously no one wants to actually read this stuff. i mean, if you do, i love you dudeski 
> 
> dont follow the tumblr urls on any other parts of this series rn because ive moved: http://protovapor.tumblr.com is my new address and http://twitter.com/cornplextro is my twitter


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